The Toronto Maple Leafs Can’t Overpay for Nikita Zadorov

The Toronto Maple Leafs are most likely going to trade for Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov. 

Zadorov recently asked for a trade, the Toronto Maple Leafs GM is the ex-GM of the Calgary Flames, the Leafs are desperate for quality defensemen (plural) and there hasn’t been a move this telegraphed since Brian Burke signed on as the Leafs GM.

With the Leafs off to Sweden for a week (which again, I can’t believe they actually agreed to) there probably isn’t too much of a hurry to get this done, but it seems that it will get done.

The important thing is that the Leafs don’t overpay.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Can’t Overpay for Zadorov

Nikita Zadorov may be 6’6, but he’s a very average defenseman.  At best, he’s a 2nd pairing guy.  Ideally, he is probably on your third pairing, but that probably means you have one of the best blue-lines in the NHL.

The Leafs would be using him as high up as their top pairing, but remember, they also did that with Luke Scheen and that was idiotic (it might have worked out OK, but there was no evidence that such a move would work, and Luke Schenn had years of negative impacts at the time).

Zadorov is better than Scheen, and younger.  He also makes about 4 x what Schenn was being paid.

The pros are that he’s huge and the Leafs have no physical presence on their current blue-line.  It is also a pro that he’s a UFA.  (Extending players like this is problematic, as you can see from his current contract he is overpaid).  NHL teams should want to maintain maximum flexibility and should never ever extend non-star to multi-year deals unless there is clear value.

Zadorov is a very good defensive player with almost no offence, and who sabotages a bit of his value by taking a ton of penalties.  He normally tops out at about 20 points, and last year he scored 14 times, but this was an anomaly.

This is a good player who can help the Toronto Maple Leafs.  He brings size and physicality that the team could surely use.  But since they don’t have those things right now, he’s likely to get played too high up in the lineup.

Is he better than Jake McCabe? Probably. I wouldn’t have thought so last year, but McCabe has pretty much been horrible as a Leaf.

If McCabe is on the third line, left side, behind Zadorov and Rielly, that’s an OK group, but it’s not great.  This is a move that if it works out perfectly is probably worth like maybe a half of a win over a full season.

And for that reason, the Leafs have to be carful not to overpay.  If the Leafs are sending multiple pieces (I assume it would be a low pick and an B level prospect like Abruzzese or Steeves) they should at least get half of his salary retained or insist that Zaitsev be included.

Or, as Jeff said, if they would prefer MacKenzie Weegar (and they should) they could probably have him for free just by taking his contract.